Visual Arts

On Equal Terms Project

The ON EQUAL TERMS Project, directed by Susan Eisenberg, draws on the leadership of a grassroots network of trade union activists, and uses personal testimony and the arts as springboards for research, analysis, education, and action about employment equity. As an Affiliated Institute of the Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center, donations to the On Equal Terms Project are tax-deductible.

ON EQUAL TERMS: gender and solidarity is an independently-hosted, interactive website with a Landing Page and twelve unique Rooms, using art, historic documents, research, and personal witness of women in the construction industry. It’s designed to replicate the visceral quality of the physical installation, while greatly expanding its audience, impact, and content depth. The Listening Room features interview excerpts from We’ll Call You If We Need You, and poems from Stanley’s Girl and Pioneering. The Diamond Hardhat Room features photo-collages of skilled tradeswomen at work.

On Equal Terms Mixed Media Installation

ON EQUAL TERMS is a site-specific 900-square-foot mixed media art installation that combines poetry, audio, found objects, photography, artifacts, witness, and 3-D mixed media—including Stella, a life-sized figure on a ladder in Carhartt coveralls and a diamond hardhat—to bring viewers into the experiences of women who work on construction sites; and the conversation about employment equity. Its 2008 launch coincided with the 30th anniversary of federal affirmative action policies that opened construction jobs and apprenticeship programs to women. Questions raised by the discrepancy between policy expectations and policy outcomes inspired the installation.

Perpetual Care Project

The PERPETUAL CARE Project investigates the patient experience of chronic illness within the current medical system through an ongoing series of photographs and 3-D artwork that highlight prescription bottles, and Perpetual Care, apoetry book with photographs.

Photographs created over changing seasons capture temporary installations of her own willful medication bottles, set against the lush vistas and historic monuments of a Victorian cemetery. 3-D mixed-media pieces, such as Rescue, a ladder created from prescription bottles and bronze, use donated prescription bottles, with labels removed. Some pieces integrate text from poems, interviews, or patient information fact sheets.